North Korea Rejects Involvement Claims In Sony Hack

North Korea rejected its involvement in the cyber attack on Sony last week. The reports earlier in the week rumored that hackers affiliated with North Korea were behind the attack in retaliation to the film: The Interview.

According to a report by Voice of America, an unidentified North Korean diplomat in New York stated that any link to his country is just another fabrication targeting them. North Korea has already declared publicly that it would be following international norms banning piracy and hacking.

The speculation about the county’s involvement picked pace after the initial reports when the spokesperson of UN wouldn’t deny that there was a possibility that Pyongyang-sponsored hackers were involved, stating to wait and see what surfaces.

North Korea has criticized Sony for its new comedy firm The Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogen as two CIA agents given the task of assassinating Kim Jong-Un. The movie is set to release on Christmas Day.

The North Korean government even declared the firm an ‘act of war’. North Korea’s UN envoy Ja Song-Nam said that there is going to be a merciless response if the movie was not cancelled. But at the same time, the country denied any involvement in the cyber attack.

The hack revealed the salaries of the stars for the film, as well as the names, birthdates and social security numbers of 3,000 employees, along with salaries for a number of high-rank executives, including Co-Chairman Amy Pascal and CEO Michael Lynton. The attack had also paralyzed Sony studio’s computers, email and phone system before revealing these details.

The release of employee information and theft of Sony materials is linked to malicious criminal acts, said Pascal and Lynton in a company-wide memo. Sony is working closely with law enforcement to find out who’s responsible.

Independent researchers have highlighted similarities in the malicious hacking code used to breach Sony and a similar attack was made on South Korea in 2013. The attack called ‘Dark Seoul’ had been carried out by North Korea according to the South Korean government, but the source was not confirmed like in the case of many cyber attacks.